Photeros annecohenae

Glossary

Brood (noun): A number of offspring or young produced or hatched
at one time*

Brood (verb): To incubate*

Convergent Evolution: The development through evolution of
similar features by
organisms with distinctly different
ancestors*

Copulation: Sexual intercourse*

Dark Threshold: A level of darkness at which light levels are
low enough for feeding and reproductive activity to occur

Detritivore: An organism that feeds on and breaks down dead
plant or animal matter, returning essential nutrients to the
ecosystem*

Ecdysis: The shedding or casting off of an outer coat or
integument by snakes, crustaceans, etc.*

Entrainment: When a competing male bioluminescent ostracod
produces a bioluminescent mating display parallel to another male's

Furca: A foot used for swimming that can also propel the
ostracod along the sediment

Glycogen: A polysaccharide that is the main form of carbohydrate
storage in animals and occurs mainly in liver and muscle tissue;
it is readily converted to glucose.*

Heterotrophic: An organism that cannot manufacture its own food
and instead obtains its food and energy by taking in organic
substances*

Incisur: An opening in the ostracod's carapace that allows for
the extension and use of its antennae

Instar: A stage in the life of an arthropod between two
successive molts*

Forage: The act of searching for food*

Keel: A longitudinal ridge that streamlines the organism and
helps it stay upright

Leading: When a male initiates the first bioluminescent mating display of the
night

Light Organ: The gland in bioluminescent ostracods that
produces the protein luciferin and the
enzyme luciferase, chemicals that create bioluminescence for
Photeros annecohenae

Microhabitat: An extremely localized, small-scale environment*

Molting: To shed an outer covering, such as skin or feathers,
for replacement by a new growth*

Nautical Twilight: The period of time when the sun is six
to 12 degrees below the horizon

Ommatidia: One of the tiny light-sensitive parts of the compound
eye of insects and other arthropods. An ommatidium resembles a
single simplified eye.* Each of the ommatidium capture part of
the image; these images are then sent to the brain to be "put
together."

Open Circulatory System: System in which nutrients and oxygen
are transported throughout the body via a transport fluid, hemolymph; this hemolymph is not
transported in enclosed vessels as it would be in a closed circulatory system.

Scavenger: An organism that feeds on dead
organic matter*

Secondary Predator: The predator's predator

Sneakers: When a “photetically-silent” male follows a
luminescent male’s mating display in hopes of intercepting a female
swimming across his spiral path

Setae: A stiff hair, bristle, or bristle-like process or part on
an organism*

Sexual Dimorphism: Differences in appearance between the males
and females of a species*

Sexual Selection: An evolutionary process in animals, in which
selection by females of males with certain characters results in
the preservation of these characters in the species*

Spermatophores: Sacs of sperm inserted and left in the female by a male of her
own species so other males
cannot impregnate her

Taxonomy: The science dealing with the description,
identification, naming, and classification of organisms*

Viscera: The soft internal organs of the body, especially those
contained within the abdominal and thoracic cavities*